I am setting up a permanent Christmas layout and am wondering of anyone knows a suitable "white" snowlike covering to lay down before I do the track work? I do not want to use the traditional Christmas cotton that is used to decorate under the tree because of stray fibers getting into the loco works.
Also, what is a good "snow like" material to use as a sort of "ballast."
First - to the forum.I am sure FifeDog (out resident winter layout expert) will chime in... but I think I can help.I can't help with the snow material, but what Fife did was paint the base white and while still wet spinkled a 'plastic' like material that he bought at craft stores. It really does look like snow.As for the balast - If you can find balast that is made from white rock that would be best, if not go with the lightest color you can find. You may be able to buy balast and then paint it yourself before putting it down? Or you could balast, then mask the track, then paint the balast?Just some thoughts.
I used Styrofoam for a base on top of plywood that I painted with acrylic gloss white paint. While the paint was wet, I sprinkled it with glitter snow purchased from a craft store. I made dunes from painters caulk over smaller bits of Styrofoam.I used self sticking roadbed sold in rolls. It was not ballasted, so I never experiment with that bit of construction. For what its worth.
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
On my temporary Christmas layout I have used white FLEECE from the fabric store. Fleece is fairly inexpensive, comes on a wide roll(60"), can be stretched to keep it flat and the fibers are tight so they won't get caught in the axles (sort of like a very heavy, soft Tshirt).
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